Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences provides students with practical guidelines for the complex process of writing literature reviews for course projects, theses or dissertations, and research manuscripts for publication.

This bestselling book follows a systematic, natural progression of steps and focuses on the writing of critical reviews of original research. Steps and guidelines are organized sequentially and are illustrated with examples from a wide range of actual (and recent) academic journals. Each chapter is designed to scaffold and help students develop a set of specific products that will contribute to a competent literature review.

Writing Literature Reviews is ideal for use in research methods courses, thesis/dissertation preparation courses, research seminars where a literature review is expected as a culminating activity, or any course in which the instructor needs to cover the vital components necessary to prepare a literature review for a variety of audiences. The book is supported by online materials including self-test quizzes for students, and lecture slides for instructors.

New to this edition:

• Expanded sections on plagiarism and selection bias.
• Updated chapter examples and references.
• Expanded discussion of digital research tools.
• Discussion of the implications of AI use.
• New model literature reviews that complement existing reviews that our longtime adopters have found useful. These can serve as the basis for classroom discussions and as source material for end-of-chapter activities, as needed.

Melisa C. Galvan (Ph.D., 2013, UC Berkeley) is co-author of Proposing Empirical Research: A Guide to the Fundamentals (Routledge, 2020) and Writing Empirical Research Reports: A Basic Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Routledge, 2023). Dr. Galvan is Professor at California State University, Northridge, USA.

Jose L. Galvan (Ph.D., 1980, UT Austin) is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Los Angeles. His academic career spanned 39 years, including appointments at UCLA; Teachers College, Columbia University; California State University, Los Angeles; and San Francisco State University, USA.